Eric Holder - Speech at the DOJ African-American History Month Program

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I’m still getting used to the notion of Attorney General Holder. I hear that and I expect to hear Attorney General Thornburgh, Reno, Barr, you know. I’ve been through a number of Attorneys General, all of whom I have had a great deal of respect for and I’m still getting used to the fact that my name follows that great title.

I want to thank everybody who put this great program together. The folks at the EEO staff I think have done a good job in getting these great, wonderful, young singers here with us today and the young woman who sang the Star Spangled Banner, I mean the National Anthem, I thought did a great job.

I look at you all and see the future of this nation. And we are very proud of what you have done and expect great things from you. You come from a great institution and there is a responsibility for you to carry on in that great tradition. And we thank you, sir, for bringing them with us today.

Every year, in February, we attempt to recognize and to appreciate black history. It is a worthwhile endeavor for the contributions of African Americans to this great nation are numerous and they are significant. Even as we fight a war against terrorism, deal with the reality of electing an African American for the first time as the President of the United States and deal with other significant issues of the day, the need to confront our racial past, and to understand our racial present, and to understand the history of African people in this country, that all endures. One cannot truly understand America without understanding the historical experience of black people in this nation. Simply put, to get to the heart of this country one must examine its racial soul.

Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as a ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and I believe we continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards. Though race related issues continue to occupy a significant portion of our political discussion, and though there remain many unresolved racial issues in this nation, we, average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about things racial. It is an issue that we have never been at ease with and given our nation’s history this is in some ways understandable. And yet, if we are to make progress in this area we must feel comfortable enough with one another, and tolerant enough of each other, to have frank conversations about the racial matters that continue to divide us. But we must do more- and we in this room bear a special responsibility. Through its work and through its example, the Department of Justice, this Department of Justice, as long as I am here, must - and will - lead the nation to the "new birth of freedom" so long ago promised by our greatest President. This is our duty. This is our solemn responsibility.

We commemorated five years ago, the 50th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. And though the world that we now live in is fundamentally different than that which existed then, this nation has still not come to grips with its racial past nor has it been willing to contemplate, in a truly meaningful way, the diverse future it is fated to have. To our detriment, this is typical of the way in which this nation deals with issues of race. And so I would suggest that we use February of every year to not only commemorate black history but also to foster a period of dialogue between the races.